(ICBUW) – The US has finally confirmed that it has fired DU ammunition Syria, after it had earlier stated that the weapons would not be used. US Central Command (CENTCOM) has acknowledged that DU was fired on two dates – the 18 and 23 November 2015. Between the strikes on the two dates, 5,100 rounds of 30mm DU ammunition were used by A-10 Thunderbolt II aircraft. This equates to 1,524kg of DU. CENTCOM said that the ammunition was selected because of the “nature of the targets”.

The news comes as governments are debating a UN General Assembly resolutionon DU weapons in New York. And, although DU use has only been admitted on two dates, ICBUW and PAX are concerned that this disclosure could be the sign that DU has, or will, be used more widely in the conflict. Continue reading »

(AFP) – “I want to go back to Syria. There is war in my country, but we’ve been living for seven months in Greece like prisoners.”

Adan, from Aleppo, has abandoned his dream of building a new life in Europe, like thousands of other Syrians trapped in Greece.

He’s just arrived at the station in Didymoteicho, a village near the Greece-Turkey border, with his wife, three children and five other relatives, and is preparing to go through a police checkpoint before trying to get into Turkey, the start of a long journey home. Continue reading »

The potentially bellicose close encounters above Syria are starting to get awfully close for comfort.

Moments ago AFP reported, from the deck of an aircraft carrier, that a Russian fighter flew dangerously close to a US warplane over eastern Syria, US defense officials said Friday, highlighting the risks of a serious mishap in the increasingly crowded airspace.

The near miss occurred late on October 17, when a Russian jet that was escorting a larger spy plane manoeuvred in the vicinity of an American warplane, Air Force Lieutenant General Jeff Harrigan said. The Russian jet came to “inside of half a mile”, he added. Another US military official, speaking on condition of anonymity , said the American pilot could feel the turbulence produced by the Russian jet’s engines. Continue reading »

If cyber-attacks are not enough to get the American people behind war with Russia, then the State Department has gone back to its old playbook. Following the release of a UN report which concluded the Syrian government used chemical weapons on its own people, Washington warns that countries that continue to shield the Assad regime will face consequences. The Russians disagree with the UN findings, “we believe that the proof is not there for any punitive action to be taken. It’s simply not there.”

Months before President George W. Bush’s speech on September 11, 2002, the New York Times reported at the time, White House officials confirmed the Bush administration had already been “[planning its Iraq strategy] long before President Bush’s vacation in Texas” in August of that same year.

The strategy was to persuade the public and Congress that the United States and its allies should confront the “threat from Saddam Hussein.”

The now infamous 9/11 anniversary speech — and the speech before the United Nations following the anniversary remarks — both stressed the importance of “[ridding] the world of terror.” But before speaking to the United Nations, Bush made the clearest case for war. Continue reading »

Those who have been toying with outright war against Russia, and an escalation of the conflict in Syria, are putting the lives of all Americans at risk.

Of course, the threat of nuclear annihilation has been with us since the earliest days of the Cold War, but Russia has now positioned itself with the largest and most destructive nuclear arsenal of any country in the world. Continue reading »

The Russian Foreign Ministry, she said during a news briefing, is aware of “militants [in Syria] receiving US-manufactured man-portable air-defense systems,” adding that “Jihadists operating in the Aleppo region continue to be supplied with arms and ammunition.”Continue reading »

The enclave of Ceuta sits on the tip of Africa’s north coast, across the Straits of Gibraltar from mainland Spain, and bordering Morocco, which also lays claim to the territory. Although Ceuta is part of the EU, its Nato status is unclear, and since 2011 at least 60 Russian warships have docked there.

As we noted previously, Spain is facing anger and criticism from all asunder at their decision to allow the refueling to occur…

Nato secretary-general Jens Stoltenberg warned on Tuesday that Russian warships heading for Syria could be used to target civilians.Continue reading »

Created out of militants who invaded Aleppo, the Western-funded White Helmets is a terrorist support group fraudulently masquerading as a humanitarian organization to undermine Syrian government, says independent researcher and journalist Vanessa Beeley.

The propaganda from the rebel-held eastern Aleppo is produced by a number of organizations and individuals who are sponsored by the West, with the White Helmets being the largest among them, Beeley told RT. But the White Helmets are not the heroes that the mainstream media is trying to make of them.

“This organization is a fraudulent shadow-state construct created by NATO to simply propagate the propaganda that will demonize Assad’s government and also demonize Russian legal intervention in Syria,” said the journalist, who recently returned from Syria. Continue reading »

Emails released by WikiLeaks describe recent activities of the American deep state. Of note is a statement by Henry Kissinger about President Erdogan six months before a failed coup against the Turkish leader:

Kissinger felt it was a “fantasy” to think Erdogan could become pro-Western, since he is very pro-Islamic.

The quote is from a leaked email entitled Turkey and ISIS (Defense Policy Board) sent to Hillary Clinton Advisor, Jake Sullivan, on January 17, 2016. The sixteen-point memo is intended to alert the Clinton campaign of the Defense Policy Board’s conclusion that President Erdogan is persona non grata. Continue reading »

The Russian aircraft carrier fleet is on its way to pass through the English Channel on its way to join Bashar al-Assad’s bombing campaign in Syrian city Aleppo, the Ministry of Defence has confirmed.

The eight-strong flotilla, led by the Admiral Kuzentsov, has completed training its pilots for bombing missions while it has been tracked by the Royal Navy’s HMS Richmond and several NATO vessels. Continue reading »

Just moments ago we reported that in the latest escalation involving Syria, the Russian aircraft carrier Kuznetsov was now sailing past Norway on its way to Syria, where it is expected to arrive in just under 2 weeks. As part of the carrier naval group, Russia also deployed an escort of seven other Russian ships, which we dubbed the “most powerful Russian naval task force to sail in northern Europe since 2014” according to Russia’s Nezavisimaya Gazeta daily reports.

It turns out it it was even bigger, because according to a NATO diplomat cited by Reuters, Russia is “deploying all of the Northern fleet and much of the Baltic fleet in the largest surface deployment since the end of the Cold War,” the diplomat said on condition of anonymity.

The order comes days after UK Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson pushed for the UK to consider military options against the Russian-backed Assad regime in Syria.

With tensions between the US and Russia escalating over the Syrian conflict, it appears the UK is more than willing to leap into the fray. According the Sunday Times, Royal Air Force (RAF) pilots have been given orders to shoot down Russian military jets operating in Syria if they feel that the Russian jets pose a threat: “[…] if a pilot is fired on or believes he is about to be fired on, he can defend himself.”

The order, which is eerily reminiscent of the modus operandi of US police, comes days after UK Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson pushed for the UK to consider military options against the Russian-backed Assad regime in Syria over its controversial bombing campaign in Aleppo. Continue reading »

“Everything calls peace, Schalom! Then it will occur – a new Middle East war suddenly flames up, big naval forces are facing hostiley in the Mediterranean – the situation is strained. But the actual firing spark is set on fire in the Balkan: I see a “large one” falling, a bloody dagger lies beside him – then impact is on impact. …”

Syrian government forces must clear Aleppo of Islamist militants still controlling the eastern part of the embattled city as this is the only way to protect civilians there, President Bashar Assad has said.

“How can you protect them [civilians] while they are under the control of terrorists? They’ve been killed by them, and they’ve been controlled fully by the terrorists,” Assad told Swiss broadcaster SRF in a 20-minute “censorship-free” interview on Tuesday.

“Is it our role to sit aside and watch if that’s how we can protect the Syrian people? We need to attack the terrorists. That’s self-evident,” the Syrian leader said, responding to a question from SRF reporter Sandro Brotz, who confronted him with the widely-shared photo of an ash-covered child allegedly pulled from the rubble in Aleppo.

Why do we hear only of the “humanitarian crisis in Aleppo” and not of the humanitarian crisis everywhere else in Syria where the evil that rules in Washington has unleashed its ISIL mercenaries to slaughter the Syrian people? Why do we not hear about the humanitarian crisis in Yemen where the US and its Saudi Arabian vassal are slaughtering Yemeni women and children? Why don’t we hear about the humanitarian crisis in Libya where Washington destroyed a country leaving chaos in its place? Why don’t we hear about the humanitarian crisis in Iraq, ongoing now for 13 years, or the humanitarian crisis in Afghanistan now 15 years old?

The answer is that the crisis in Aleppo is the crisis of Washington losing its ISIL mercenaries to the Syrian army and Russian air force. The jihadists sent by Obama and the killer bitch Hillary (“We came, we saw, he died”) to destroy Syria are being themselves destroyed. The Obama regime and the Western presstitutes are trying to save the jihadists by covering them in the blanket of “humanitarian crisis.” Continue reading »

Chief spokesman for Iran’s Armed Forces says the United States is the most important reason behind all the current problems in the Middle East, stressing that Washington must accept its strategic mistakes and leave the region.

“The root cause of all the problems in the West Asia region is the US hegemony,” Deputy Chief of Staff of Iran’s Armed Forces Brigadier General Massoud Jazayeri said on Sunday.

He added that bloody wars in Iraq, Afghanistan, Syria and Yemen, the continuation of the Israeli regime’s occupation of Palestine, the Iraqi imposed war on Iran in the 1980s, the Lebanese and Bahraini conflicts and other events that have killed and wounded thousands of people and left behind destruction are only some consequences of measures taken by the evil US government in the region. Continue reading »

The events in the Middle East, Syria and Aleppo are the focus of global attention. Rarely has a battle been so decisive to the outcome of a war and the fate of hundreds of millions of people around the world

Hillary Clinton in the last presidential debate repeatedly called for the establishment of a no-fly zone (NFZ) in Syria. The concept, reiterated several times, clashes with the revelation contained in her private emails admitting that the implementation of a NFZ would entail the increased deaths of Syrian civilians. In a recent hearing before the Senate Armed Services Committee, General Philip Breedlove was asked what kind of effort would be required for the US armed forces to impose a NFZ over Syrian skies. With obvious embarrassment, the General was forced to admit that such a request would involve hitting Russian and Syrian aircraft and vehicles, opening the door to a direct confrontation between Moscow and Washington, a decision the General was simply not willing to take. The military leadership has always shown a readiness to implement the military option; so this time they must have sniffed the danger of a direct conflict with Moscow. Continue reading »

This week, British Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson called for “demonstrations outside the Russian embassy”, because of of what Johnson alleges as “war crimes” Syria. It seems that Johnson’s dangerous rhetoric merely typifies a general level of ignorance and political malaise taking hold over the British Parliamentarians recently.

“Everything calls peace, Schalom! Then it will occur – a new Middle East war suddenly flames up, big naval forces are facing hostiley in the Mediterranean – the situation is strained. But the actual firing spark is set on fire in the Balkan: I see a “large one” falling, a bloody dagger lies beside him – then impact is on impact. …”

This article was written by Isaac Davis and originally published at Waking Times.

Editor’s Comment: The scenario is plenty likely. With so many bizarre events taking place leading up to the election, few Americans are even grounded in reality any more. Perhaps the powers that be, with new and ready scapegoats – like Donald Trump, ISIS or Russia – think that the populace can again be convinced to surrender their liberties and consent to war if a new attack is staged.

They have done it, and they will do it again. This is standard operating procedure:

All America’s Wars Begin with False Flags (and WWIII Will Too)

The narrative under Hillary Clinton will be terrifying, as she destroys every last safeguard against tyranny this country has left standing. The smell of war is in the air, and every patriot should be on guard for the propaganda and salesmanship of another big lie. What do you think will happen?

Americans are sleepwalking into World War III, and as events in Syria are shaping up it could come any moment as the biggest October surprise ever. At this stage in the conflict, we are one minor event away from all out war between the world’s major super powers, an event which would most certainly result in nuclear war. All that is needed is for the right type of false flag event to serve as provocation.

Two weeks ago when the US broke off bilateral relations with Russia over the ongoing Syrian proxy war, we reported that as part of America’s “next steps” would be a discussion on military options. As Reuters reported then, the “discussions were being held at “staff level,” and have yet to produce any recommendations to President Barack Obama, who has resisted ordering military action against Syrian President Bashar al-Assad in the country’s multi-sided civil war. “The president has asked all of the agencies to put forward options, some familiar, some new, that we are very actively reviewing,” Blinken said. “When we are able to work through these in the days ahead we’ll have an opportunity to come back and talk about them in detail.”

Fast forward to today, when as Reuters once again reports, the time has come for the US to make a decision: on Friday President Barack Obama and his top foreign policy advisers are expected to meet to consider their military and other options in Syria as Syrian and Russian aircraft continue to pummel Aleppo and other targets.

The tensions here are well known: some of the more hawkish “top officials” told Reuters that the United States must act more forcefully in Syria or “risk losing what influence it still has over moderate rebels and its Arab, Kurdish and Turkish allies in the fight against Islamic State.” Naturally, this means that one set of options includes direct U.S. military action such as air strikes on Syrian military bases, munitions depots or radar and anti-aircraft bases.

Russia’s Foreign Affairs spokesperson, Maria Zakharova, lost her cool in response to a Western journalist who asked her the question: “Why is Russia supporting Assad, who is killing civilians?” But even more incredible was the utter lack of response when US State Department officials were asked what the different between bombings in Syria and Saudi air strikes in Yemen.

Tensions continue to rise as the war drums for Syria beat louder and louder and in this video Dan Dicks of Press For Truth shows how if the US intervenes any further, sending in ground troops and attacking Syrian military bases — the result could be a direct war with Russia, and perhaps even China.